Economically important production relationships in channel catfish (Ictalurus punctatus) foodfish production

The catfish industry ( Ictalurus punctatus ), the largest segment of aquaculture in the USA, has declined in the number of operations, total yield and sales in recent years. This has led to a call for innovations to improve production efficiency and to lower the cost of production. This paper reviewed the literature on management parameters that affect economically important production parameters under the control of an individual catfish farmer. Stocking density, size of fish at stocking, duration of culture, cropping systems, feeding strategies and aeration were shown to significantly affect the economically important parameters of investment costs, yield and feed conversion ratio. Additional work is needed to quantitatively model the effects of multiple parameters and to develop user‐friendly versions to assist catfish farmers in decision making.